Dturd squirms for a way out of VFA mess

After once again making an international ass of himself and rattling his military establishment and quite a few others with reckless comments about screwing up the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States, Philippine President Rodrigo “Dturd” Duterte is now looking for a way out of the hole he has dug himself.

First, he wanted to ditch the agreement when he had a snit about the US not approving a toady’s visa.  Then he wanted to hold the VFA hostage in exchange for Covid 19 vaccine doses.  Then he wanted to whore the agreement out for money.  Then for military hardware.

The loose cannon huckster now says he can’t decide whether to renew or abrogate the VFA and wants ordinary Filipinos to weigh in on the matter.  This, after making all those stupid public remarks that got the usual media pansies all excited but didn’t really amount to much because Dturd never actually made any specific demand, or even request, to the US to back up his silly theatrics.

And noticeably absent from his recent canned speech about the issue was any reference to demanding more of anything from the US.  No, the petty provincial boss said, I don’t know what to do now so I’ll leave it up to you.

It’s the curious paradox about the Philippines:  If you put something like this to an actual vote, it’s almost certain that most Filipinos would favor strengthening ties with the US and ending all this cheesy drama.  Yet, time and again, “leaders” looking for an issue to hang their hat on make reckless statements, and sometimes decisions, that jeopardize or weaken those ties and sometimes even put the nation in danger.

It all goes back to the bad old colonial days, when Filipino politicians found that they could make names for themselves by loudly demanding immediate independence from the US, while quite often quietly sabotaging or disparaging those efforts in the background.

It’s the same old circus.  Nothing changes but the clowns.

Philippines and the South China Morning Flush

It’s so disappointing to see the venerable South China Morning Post produce the same sort of shoddy and sensationalist journalism that so often plagues the Philippine media.

A February 21 story about the ongoing drama concerning negotiations around the US Visiting Forces Agreement with the Philippines is headlined “Duterte wants US$16 billion for VFA with American military. Fair price for a US ally in the South China Sea, or ‘extortion’?”

A subhead then intones that “The Philippine president has demanded Washington quadruple its aid to Manila in return for renewing the Visiting Forces Agreement.”

But it’s simply not true that Philippine President Rodrigo “Dturd” Duterte has made any such specific demand, although his flamboyant and notoriously truth-challenged spokesman Harry “Dorque” Roque has publicly floated some numbers to suggest the Philippines should receive more. Dorque also admitted in the same breath, of course, that THE PHILIPPINES HAD MADE NO SPECIFIC DEMAND TO THE UNITED STATES REGARDING INCREASED COMPENSATION TIED TO THE VFA. It’s hard to believe the South China Morning Post missed that critical portion of the discussion. It’s much easier to believe that the once reputable newspaper has simply taken a quick, dirty, and deceptive approach to presenting the news.

And that’s even easier to believe when the paper makes false statements of fact in its story, such as erroneously claiming that the VFA “grants the US jurisdiction over American military personnel accused of crimes while on Philippine territory.” Actually, the complete opposite is true. The VFA explicitly provides Philippine courts with jurisdiction over American personnel accused of crimes. The VFA merely provides that the US shall retain physical custody of the accused during the proceedings, which is totally reasonable for security, diplomatic, and other reasons. There’s an enormous difference between jurisdiction and custody, and any news organization covering this issue should clearly understand that by now.

The SCMP story goes on to state that “critics say the agreement, in effect, makes Filipinos second-class citizens in their own country” and cites the infamous Subic Bay “rape” case and the Laude transvestite prostitute killing case. What the story failed to mention is that in both cases the US fully cooperated with the Philippines and subjected both American defendants to Philippine court jurisdiction, just as the VFA requires. The Subic “rape” case fell apart after the purported victim changed her story, and the defendant in the Laude case was convicted and served his sentence in the Philippines, in a facility agreed to by both nations, just as the VFA requires.

It’s sad that public discussion of these issues so often remains polluted by sensationalism, emotion, distortion, and rhetoric that loses sight of both the facts and the larger issues at stake.

To its credit, the SCMP did interview a think tank analyst who suggested that the $16 billion figure that’s being bandied about as an example of annual US military aid to Pakistan, and therefore a basis for increased aid to the Philippines, is likely a huge distortion and that the figure may actually reflect both security and economic aid over the past 20 years. Now that’s something the news organizations should carefully examine and get to the bottom of.

But that would take some actual reporting work and analysis. It’s so much easier to stick a microphone in the face of some ridiculous kook and then repeat whatever they say, whether it’s true or not.

Somehow, the Philippines always seems to come out the loser with this formula but never really catches on.

The Philippines: Things can always get worse

Despicable Dturd has already demonstrated that his idea of leadership is to act like a pathetic old whore at a broken-down bar, who stage-whispers “demands” to whoever is forced to listen, rather than just state her desire directly to her presumed customer.

So after making an international fool of himself once again with reckless statements about “demanding” more aid from the US, it’s time for presidential mouthpiece Toupee Roque to join the fun and really make things stupid.

Roque was asked during a video call with reporters whether Dturd had actually specified what amount he was “demanding” that the US fork over lest the mercurial “strongman” abrogate the Philippines’ Visiting Forces Agreement with the US.

Dorque mumbled that there has been no specific demand, and that the US had not inquired.

“If they (US) ask for what our demand is, we will give it. But right now, I think it’s premature because there’s no offer, there’s no inquiry so far,” Dorque babbled, according to ABS CBN News.

In other words, the US is not playing this stupid game. And it shouldn’t. The US has indicated that the Philippines has already received the most US military assistance of any nation in the Indo-Pacific region.

But wait, said Dorque. Pakistan got more than us, about $16 billion, according to a think tank report! Therefore, we should get the same, or at least more than we’ve been getting! Kawawa naman. These clowns obviously fail to understand that relations between countries are not so simple, and that being a whining old whore is not likely to improve a defense posture. There are so many factors that must be taken into account, such as threat levels, treaty obligations, ability to manage assistance, and reliability of defense partners. Crying that “she got more than me” isn’t a basis for anything.

(And it should be noted that, despite Dorque’s admission that the Philippines had presented the US with no specific demand, the infamously dishonest Philippine Daily Inquirer soon posted an article, based on the same video call, with a headline falsely claiming “Duterte demands $16 billion for hosting US troops.” PDI seems determined to claim the title of Fake News Kings of the Philippines.)

Dturd later seemed to counter his own spokesman, and mumbled in a televised address that “It is not money I am asking for…we should be provided with arms and armaments that could place us at equal footing with countries at war with us.”

Well, the Philippines has a long, long way to go before it will ever be at “equal footing” with potential adversaries in the region, such as China. And pissing away its relationship with the world’s strongest military superpower isn’t going to put this prostitute regime anywhere but out of the bar and into the grimy back alley.

It’s the same old tired story: “Uncle Kano, stay out of our business! Uncle Kano, save us from ourselves!”

World tells Dturd: You’re a fucking idiot

Here we go again.

Sometimes it’s really hard to tell which is more full of shit: The Philippines’ pathetic excuse for a president or it’s highest-circulation daily “newspaper.”

Another fake news headline on the Philippine Daily Inquirer website today reads “Duterte tells US: Pay if you want VFA to stay.” But once again, Dturd wasn’t speaking to the US. He was speaking to Filipinos he was trying desperately to impress, in this case troops at Clark Air Base. He’s done this kind of silly shit before, of course. And his media enablers play right along and amplify his loose rhetoric beyond all truth and reason.

Dturd “demanded the United States to ‘pay’ if they want to continue its Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the Philippines,” reads the lead sentence of the Inquirer’s breathless nonsense. That exercise in ridiculous grammar should really win some sort of prize for bad news writing and incompetent editorial supervision. But we digress. The bigger problem is that Dturd didn’t demand anything from the US. All he did is pop off again before an audience, spouting what he may wish he were saying to US representatives.

In a stark example of paranoid rambling, Dturd told the Clark troops “I would like to put on notice if there’s an American agent here that from now on, you want the Visiting Forces Agreement done? Well, you have to pay,” according to the Inquirer, which once again confuses stenography with journalism. Hint: simply repeating whatever some kook says is not journalism.

It was just last month that Dturd made similar noises in public, telling cabinet members that he would demand Covid 19 vaccine doses from the US and terminate the VFA if he doesn’t receive them, which the Inquirer duly repeated without question. But in the month that passed, they never got around to following up and determining whether Dturd had actually communicated that demand, or anything at all, to the US.

So here we go again: Blustery statements by a frightened provincial elite brat trying to impress men in uniform whose respect he obviously craves, and ridiculous media stooges hanging on his every word but providing nothing of substance to readers.

So since the Inquirer is obviously not up to the task, maybe an actual news outlet can pose the obvious question: Have you presented any actual demands to the US regarding the VFA? Why do you make these ridiculous theatrical spectacles of yourself rather than clearly communicate with your treaty allies?

The likely truth here is that the US has already committed to provide substantial assistance to the Philippines, as it has done countless times before. But now a crude politician feels it necessary to publicly “demand” the assistance that’s already been committed, so that he may give the impression that his demand was responsible for securing the assistance.

This is an old, old act. Why does anybody still fall for this stupid shit? Seriously.

What will the Biden presidency mean for the Philippines?

Will Dutampo crank up the whining and theatrics or get down to coherent governance?

Now that US President Joe Biden has been sworn in and begun quickly getting things back to something close to coherent after four years of chaos, how will his presidency affect the Philippines and how will Dturd handle it?

Dturd and Trump seemed to understand each other at some level, both being authoritarian outsider elites who invoke crass nationalism and demonization to pander to aggrieved constituents with gonzo political theatrics.

But that shit’s not likely to fly very far with Biden.

Can we expect more loose drama about the Visiting Forces Agreement and loud demands that Uncle Kano bail the Philippines out of the next mess-of-the-moment?

Will Dturd run to the Chinese first to see what he can wheedle?

How long until he pulls his first silly stunt to test the Biden Administration’s response?

Or will he finally start conducting foreign policy like an adult who’s actually interested in the nation’s well-being and future?